Power Ranking the Group Stage Castin Duos from Hell

6. Moxxi + Waga

I don't know what else needs to be said about Moxxi. She is not good at this, never has been. Worst of all, PGL decided that Moxxi/Waga would be the premier duo for this group of misfits, casting a truly unfortunate percentage of the high level games.

Moxxi's worst trait is that you often get the impression that she isn't even looking at the screen. You couldn't count the amount of times Waga had to interrupt one of her pointless tangents with "They're about to smoke up!" or "X might die here!". She does a terrible job of setting up her co-caster, often asking extremely obvious or straight up stupid questions. The best casters (Cap/OD) help their analysts shine by asking good questions and following up when they under explain or there's an obvious counterpoint. Moxxi can't do that because even for a play-by-play caster her understanding of dota is really poor. The best casters also know when to be quiet, another thing Moxxi is terrible at.

5. Ares + Danog/KillerPigeon photo

I don't have much to say about Ares, except that he's one of the 500 Australians casting this event. Do they even play dota there? How did this happen?

Danog is also from Australia but unlike Ares I think he sucks. Being an analyst with zero competitive background (hence zero credibility) puts you in a tough position where you constantly have to justify what you're saying. For instance, when Ares asks if Quinn's Lina is doing better than it should vs a puck mid, "yeah I think so" is a fine answer if you're Gunnar and a terrible answer if you're Danog because who even is Danog? I'm assuming not a very good dota player, so I'm not particularly interested in how he thinks a Lina/Puck lane at the highest level should be going. Of course you could answer that question by referencing how that lane has played out in other games this TI and avoid the issue I'm describing. Danog is also the king of retrospective analysis. Oh you think Fnatic should have avoided fighting after watching them lose 4 fights in a row? Good call.

I don't know if KillerPigeon is supposed to be an analyst or play-by-play guy. He did a lot of casting with Danog so big thumbs down either way.

4. Nomad + Basskip photo

Basskip has a bad tendency where whenever his co-caster asks him a question he appears caught off guard and ends up stammering "uhh…" or "yeah…". I get he's just thinking of something to say and it's more of a vocal tick than anything but you should probably be ready to answer questions if you want to do color commentary. I personally find Nomad's lisp kind of annoying and find him much less entertaining than he finds himself. I'm not purposely trying to be flamely but thems the breaks.

3. Snare + Fluke photo

If I never heard either of them cast again I wouldn't be upset but I also wasn't muting them when they were on stream. Snare's voice can get a little high pitched and crack when he gets excited, an actual professional audio set up (i.e a real production) would help him out a lot compared to whatever 80-100 dollar logitech mic he's probably casting on.

2. SeekNStrike + PieLieDie photo

SeekNStrike did a good job trying to utilize and actually learn from Pie. Pie was nice enough to sell some of Seek's terrible jokes (terrible name too by the way). Oher than one game where SeekNStrike (calling him S from now on) made a bunch of wacky, super hilarious bear puns I didn't want to shove a fork in my ears when they were casting. PLD is just a naturally low energy guy which can be tough – even when he's excited and enjoying the games you don't really feel it listening. GrandGrant's best attribute as a caster was his infectious enthusiasm, Snare has some of that and it is probably more important for a play-by-play caster than an analyst but … ANYWAY my point is PLD has dead eyes.

1. Gareth + Godz

I have always liked Godz. He does a good job criticizing but not pushing it too far the way an ex-pro can get away with (unless really obvious/bad mistakes are being made). Gareth is also competent. Competent is an incredible complement if you're on this list. Like Moxxi/Waga I didn't include a photo for them because unlike most of the casters at this year's International I figure you already know who they are.

-1. BreakyCPK

Got relegated or something and did not cast much, which was nice because our other options were so good.